Another psalm of David, this one should knock you on your face, and yet lift you up squirming with joy and shouting. It translates quite well into English because it adheres most firmly to the fundamental nature of Hebrew language: a vivid narrative that transports the hearer/reader personally into the experience itself. Put aside the fancy theological terms and abstract meanings; take a journey to the time and place of David and find yourself in his God’s hands.
David is quite certain Jehovah knows him better than he knows himself. That’s because the Lord has always been personally involved in David’s life. Indeed, David has clearly seen how God has called him and steered him from birth. This is something David finds utterly incomprehensible, yet there is no other way to make sense of how things have turned out.
Indeed, it is impossible to escape God’s personal Presence. To the extremities of Creation itself, could David travel there, he would bump into God again and again. He would look to find the leading hand of God no matter what David has gone through. Divine fingerprints are everywhere. No darkness is too deep to hide from God, for there is nothing that can limit the perception of His Spirit, for His eyes bring their own light.
From the moment of conception, Jehovah shaped every molecule of David’s physical form. And has not God done such a marvelous job of it? David found himself always made just right for the mission God gave him. The Lord knew what He had in mind for David before he was born to experience any of it. Never mind what we might speculate about God’s wisdom and knowledge; that David has experienced just this much of it is all the proof he needs that God is far beyond any other being.
Knowing just this much about God, it is unimaginable that He would tolerate moral wickedness, so David has to embrace that holy anger. God is holy and nothing unclean can long stand in His Presence. David has had his fill of men blaspheming God’s name. How can he avoid feeling the same kind of anger at sin? Let God show Himself pure and holy and wise and powerful against all sin! David will cheer Him on.
Even if the wrath of God falls upon himself, David is eager for holiness to reign. God knows him all too well, and David falls on his face begging for cleansing. He cries out for God to reveal his sin to him so that he can repent. For only then can David set his feet on the path of divine truth.
